Verifying Confession: Finding Space for Truth in Le Bone Florence of Rome

ABSTRACT In the late fourteenth-century romance, Le Bone Florence of Rome, the titular heroine finds herself at the center of a crisis. Her reputation has been the subject of so many lies and so much deceit that it is hard to imagine she will ever be vindicated, or indeed, that anyone’s words about anything could be trusted again. To remediate this hopeless situation, Florence takes an unusual step, forcing her many assailants to publicly confess their sins. What is more, she presides over this unusual confession as their confessor. This essay considers Le Bone Florence in light of the literary tradition of false confessors and untrustworthy penitents, examining how concealment operates within the sacrament more broadly. I argue that, within this text, the space of confession is one in which the truth can be heard and believed. Nevertheless, the resolution it offers proves all too precarious, because for a woman in Florence’s position, crisis is only ever one well-told lie away.